Prisoners

"I was getting tired of the streets. I was tired of being grown and i wanted to be a kid again."

"Any Black person in amerika, if they are honest with themselves, has got to come to the conclusion that they don't know what it feels like to be Free."

"Once you're in prison, there are plenty of jobs, and, if you don't want to work, they beat you up and throw you in the hole. If every state had to pay workers to do the jobs prisoners are forced to do, the salaries would amount to billions. License plates alone would amount to millions. When Jimmy Carter was governor of Georgia, he brought a Black woman from prison to clean the statehouse and babysit Amy. Prisons are a profitable business. They are a way of legally perpetuating slavery. In every state, more and more prisons are being built and even more are on the drawing board. Who are they for? they certainly aren't planning to put white people in them. Prisons are part of this government's genocidal war against Black and Third World people."

"There were a lot of communist groups on campus. I had no idea at the time that there were so many different kinds of communists and socialists. I had been so brainwashed i had thought that all communists were the same, that there were Marxists, Leninists, Maoists, Trotskyites, etc. Most of the so-called communists i met weren’t in any party at all but just related to the philosophy of communism. Most followed very different political lines and policies, and it was difficult for them to sit down and agree on the time of day, much less hatch up some “communist plot.”"

"When George Washington was fighting for freedom in the Revolutionary War, he was fighting for the freedom of "whites only." Rich whites, at that. After the so-called Revolution, you couldn't vote unless you were a white man and you owned a plot of land. The Revolutionary War was led by some rich white boys who got tired of paying heavy taxes to the king. It didn't have anything at all to do with freedom, justice, and equality for all."

"It should also be clear to us by now who the real criminals are. Nixon and his crime partners have murdered hundreds of Third World brothers and sisters in Vietnam, Cambodia, Mozambique, Angola, and South Africa. As was proved by Watergate, the top law enforcement officials in this country are a lying bunch of criminals. The president, two attorney generals, the head of the fbi, the head of the cia, and half the white house staff have been implicated in the Watergate crimes."

"Anytime you're talking about a ladder, you're talking about a top and a bottom , an upper class and a lower class, a rich class and a poor class. As long as you've got a system with a top and a bottom, Black people are always going to wind up at the bottom, because we're the easiest to discriminate against."

"I was surprised to learn that there were all different types of capitalist countries and different types of communist countries. I had heard “communist bloc” and “behind the iron curtain” so much in the media, that i had naturally formed the impression that these countries were all the same. Although they are all socialist, East Germany, Bulgaria, Cuba, and North Korea are as different as night and day. All of them have different histories, different cultures, and different ways of applying the socialist theory, although they have the same economic and similar political systems. It has never ceased to amaze me how so many people can be tricked into hating people who have never done them any harm. You simply mention the word “communist” and a lot of these red, white, and blue fools are ready to kill."

"My name is Assata ("she who struggles") Olugbala ( "for the people" ) Shakur ("the thankful one"), and I am a 20th century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the US government's policy towards people of color. I am an ex political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984. I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one. In the 1960s, I participated in various struggles: the black liberation movement, the student rights movement, and the movement to end the war in Vietnam. I joined the Black Panther Party. By 1969 the Black Panther Party had become the number one organization targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO program. because the Black Panther Party demanded the total liberation of black people, J. Edgar Hoover called it the "greatest threat to the internal security of the country" and vowed to destroy it and its leaders and activists."

"They call us murderers, but we did not murder over two hundred fifty unarmed Black men, women, and children, or wound thousands of others in the riots they provoked during the sixties. The rulers of this country have always considered their property more important than our lives. They call us murderers, but we were not responsible for the twenty-eight brother inmates and nine hostages murdered at attica. They call us murderers, but we did not murder and wound over thirty unarmed Black students at Jackson State—or Southern State, either."

"When we were sitting in this courtroom, during the jury selection proves, i listened to Judge Thompson tell you about the amerikan system of justice. He talked about the presumption of innocence; he talked about equality and justice. His words were like a beautiful dream in a beautiful world. But i have been awaiting trial for two and one half years. And justice, in my eyesight has not been the amerikan dream. It has been the amerikan nightmare. There was a time when I wanted to believe that there was justice in this country. But reality crashed through and shattered all my daydreams. While awaiting trial i have earned a Ph.D. in justice, or rather, the lack of it."

"Alone from Jargon born to rescue Law, From precedent, grave hum, and formal saw! To strip chicanery of its vain pretence, And marry Common Law to Common Sense!"

"Turn parson, Colman, that’s the way to thrive; Your parsons are the happiest men alive."

"True Genius, like Armida’s wand, Can raise the spring from barren land. While all the art of Imitation, Is pilf’ring from the first creation."

"“One time I told this lady to give me all her money. She said no. So I cut her and pulled her eyes out.” interview with Ramirez"

""Violent delights tend to have violent ends." Richard Ramirez the Night Stalker - Crimes Lab"

"Big deal. Death always went with the territory. See you in Disneyland."

"Serial killers do, on a small scale, what governments do on a large one. They are a product of the times and these are bloodthirsty times. Even psychopaths have emotions if you dig deep enough. Then again, maybe they don't."

"吳王曰：「將軍罷休就舍，寡人不願下觀。」孫子曰：「王徒好其言，不能用其實。」於是闔廬知孫子能用兵，卒以為將。西破彊楚，入郢，北威齊晉，顯名諸侯，孫子與有力焉。"

"余嘗西至空峒，北過涿鹿，東漸於海，南浮江淮矣，至長老皆各往往稱黃帝、堯、舜之處，風教固殊焉，總之不離古文者近是。"

"There is no fixed road to wealth, and money has no permanent master."

"He had no penchant for beauty of style, but aimed merely to make his record complete... We shall find none of the brilliance of Taine in the pages of Szuma Ch’ien, no charming gossip and anecdotes in the style of Herodotus, no sober concatenation of cause and effect as in Thucydides, no continental vision pictured in music as in Gibbon; for history seldom rises, in China, from an industry to an art. From Szuma Ch’ien to his namesake Szuma Kuang, who, eleven hundred years later, attempted again a universal history of China, the Chinese historians have labored to record faithfully—sometimes at the cost of their income or their lives—the events of a dynasty or a reign; they have spent their energies upon truth, and have left nothing for beauty. Perhaps they were right, and history should be a science rather than an art; perhaps the facts of the past are obscured when they come to us in the purple of Gibbon or the sermons of Carlyle. But we, too, have dull historians, and can match any nation in volumes dedicated to record—and gather—dust."

"Becoming aware, awakening, enlightenment, is possible right here and now, for everyone. From moment to moment, and yet only here and now, never sometimes, somewhere. Reality, God, is present here and now. The kingdom of heaven, blessedness, moksha, nirvana waits here and now. Outwardly nothing may happen, and yet a purely inner process can open up a new world, a new life, a new reality. - New? - Yes, really new, and yet as all those who have ever experienced it assert, at that moment we know that we have always been at home in that world, although we only now become aware of it."

"I will devote one third of my essence to the cooperative movement. But two thirds belong to humanity and myself. I will always practice new things, everything between heaven and earth. But a third I'm happy to give: and the rest two thirds supports greatly everything I can give to the cooperative movement."

"The man receives four death sentences - yet lives nearly 90 years. He hadn't been to schools - yet he was as well learned and wise as the best professors. A great and confident man - yet modest and humble. He had friends from near and far - yet he was an independent lone wolf. Zen buddhist - yet a member of the Lutheran Church. Socialist - yet many capitalists were friends to him."

"Humanity could live in peace - but it doesn't, because from the cradle we are taught to compete and fight, win, dominate and kill each other. These lessons and the world view behind them becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: a state of affairs is created where you have to compete, fight and kill."

"I promised to myself that I will never again obey anyone or any authority, government, gods or angels in anything else than in what I accept as the right or the best possible thing to do."

"Rough-spoken and quick to anger, representative to farmers interests made a colourful contrast with the elegant and cultivated Hegde."

"In 1991, Gowda stood for the Lok Sabha election as a SJP candidate and won with a narrow margin. It was his three-year stint in parliament that saw him broaden his vision and shed his parochial concerns.He patched with Hegde and returned to head the JD in 1993. His organizational skills were instrumental in helping the JD come back to power in Karnataka. Now as the prime minister, Deve Gowda;s defining movement has truly arrived. His flexibility will help bind desperate political groups together"

"The level of tolerance to criticism shown by him is the lowest. He gets easily provoked and retaliates instantaneously. He must have been feeling insecure while occupying the prime ministerial pedestal."

"His notorious lack of punctuality was upsetting even his security agents and spreading disillusionment among police personnel, who are deployed on the routes of his motorcade hours before he is to pass."

"Marx and market does not mix. By the time this realization dawns, the United FrontGovernment (UF) [headed by Deve Gowda] would have gone...the new finance minister, who was an architect of “pro-rich policy” of the erstwhile congress government, had been entrusted with the task of implementing the so-called common programme of the UF. The people are not amused by the spectacle of a Prime Minister pledging his commitment to the previous government’s policies even as he remains a hostage to the support of dogmatic communists for his survival."

"If the Prime Minister is not shown napping at official functions by an irreverent media, he is portrayed as a perennial latecomer who keeps people waiting interminably for him to arrive at his appointments."

"The UF Government headed by Mr Deve Gowda would, in effect, be a national government in as much as, it would have representation from a wide cross section of the people of the country"

"Hegde, as a Brahmin was not prepared to see a dark-skinned farmer of a low caste become the Prime Minister of India"

"Having a good and cultured family background was not enough to be successful in politics. One should live amidst farmers, till land, and tend cows and buffaloes."

"I went there and of course we invited the investors to come to India. So this is one of the companies to come to India {Ashok Kheny). He only signed Kheny MOU as a witness with bureaucrats to work out the details."

"I have seen several ups and downs in my life. I have seen several detractors in my life. Why should I bother about that? In my 40 years in politics I have passed through such events and I don't want to take these things seriously. I will take things philosophically."

"I am a born fighter throughout my political life. I have not lost my heart by the results of the Parliamentary elections."

"Nobody can finish off anyone else. No political party can finish off another political party. Neither will we finish off anyone nor will the others finish us off. It is all a wrong notion. In fighting for the better prospects of his party, nobody can find fault with him."

"He is the president of the Janata Dal (S) (JD-S) political party in India and currently a member of Parliament (MP) representing his home town Hassan district in Karnataka. His party mainly runs on a plank of social justice and has substantial support in South-central Karnataka."

"I will not eat food from restaurants while campaigning. My party workers know my diet and keep ragi mudde (ragi balls and sambar ready before I reach the villages."

"I may be a sleeping politician. But one should know that a sleeping politician is always awake about national politics. I am not like politicians who sleep on national issues though they may be awake physically,""

"I have to lead my party from the front. I love meeting people and this happens only during elections."

"I don't want to make general remarks. I don't want to make sweeping remarks about the media. In my country the media can play its own role. Freedom of press is there. It is for them to take their own views about the leaders."

"His ascension to the post of Prime Minister was a bit of a surprise, since he was not a frontrunner and was neither from the Congress nor the BJP, predictably the two largest winners. However, since an alliance between them was out of the question, it was left to the Congress to throw its weight behind a number of regional parties and take control. The Janata Dal and Gowda emerged the biggest winners."

"I did not oppose his execution. I believed he deserved it. I never said to Ted that he did not deserve to die. I think I was pretty open with him about that. If there was a case where an individual deserve to face the maximum penalty, I think he did.....I'm not an apologist for Ted Bundy."

"He ruined our lives and he's still part of your life, unfortunately."

"Take care of yourself, young man. I say that to you sincerely; take care of yourself, please. It is an utter tragedy for this court to see such a total waste of humanity as I’ve experienced in this courtroom. You’re a bright young man. You would have made a good lawyer and I would have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went another way, partner. Take care of yourself. I don’t feel any animosity toward you. I just want you to know that. Once again, take care of yourself."

"If he killed all those lovely young women–we have several beautiful daughters of our own, we know how we would feel and its a terrible thing. And he wasn't raised that way! He was raised in a good, loving, caring family.... We still love and care for him, but we want to know: what caused this?"